House moves ahead with stricter crypto kiosk regulations

House lawmakers broke with the House Committee on Commerce and Consumer Affairs’ majority recommendation on Thursday, Apr. 23, to advance an earlier version of a bill intended to prevent cryptocurrency scams.

Senate Bill 482, from prime sponsor and Merrimack Republican Sen. Tim McGough, passed Thursday morning after debate, 214-140. The Republican majority of the House Commerce Committee had recommended a version of the bill with an amendment from Rep. Keith Ammon, a New Boston Republican, but that amendment was defeated Thursday.

Both versions of the bill sought to prevent scams conducted through cryptocurrency kiosks, machines that allow users to purchase difficult-to-trace digital currencies with cash in person. Scams involving the kiosks sometimes cost victims their life savings and are rampant in New Hampshire, law enforcement officers and a victim said in a hearing and interviews earlier this month.

The Senate version of the bill set an indefinite limit of $2,000 per day in transactions for customers using the machines and mandated a two-week refund period. Ammon’s amendment did not include a permanent limit, but did require customers to be subject to a “new customer period” during which their first transaction would be held for three days and capped at $3,000. The amendment also prevented municipalities from enacting their own stricter regulations, and provided some legal immunity for crypto operators in certain cases.

Those were among the reasons critics said the committee’s amendment protected the kiosk industry at the expense of New Hampshire residents.

During floor debate on Thursday, Nicholas Bridle, a Hampton Republican, said more than $2.6 million had been reported lost to crypto ATM scams by Hampton residents. He spoke against the amendment, which he said made kiosk operators “untouchable.”

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The amendment “makes New Hampshire more attractive to scammers and criminals,” Bridle said.

Ammon disputed that. He said figures cited by the opposition were overblown and said his amendment contained important privacy protections.

“I think the intent is to ban this industry,” he said. “In New Hampshire, do we ban industries, or do we make sure that only good actors are behaving in that industry?”

The amendment failed, 220-135.

SB 482 will now be referred to the House Committee on Criminal Justice and Public Safety.